Teaching Kids Art Through Picture Books

As I write this in Indiana, it is January, it is cold, and it is snowing. I love that! I much prefer the beauty of snow to the gray and colorlessness of no snow in winter. How about you? Do you like snowy weather? Do you get excited and take your kids sledding? Or do you prefer to stay inside with a good book? Or both?When it snowed after Christmas, I had fun watching my kids drag their kids around the yard in the snow.
Award winning Illustrator Susan Jeffers says, “There is only one thing more majestic than a Robert Frost poem about snow--a snowstorm itself.” His poem Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening captures a feeling all parents can relate to: that of the tension of wanting to slow down and appreciate the beauty in front of us, and at the same time needing to do urgent tasks that are also in front of us. 

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep."

Doesn’t that just sum up the way we f...